24th April 2012

Well, this must be the wettest drought since records began :-)) Very few moths in the trap; Blackcap singing in the walled garden. Many of the smaller cherries have finished flowering or have had their petals removed by the power showers of the past few days. However some of the older cherries are at their best. Particularly Tai-Haku - the Great White Cherry. It was lost from cultivation in Japan for centuries until a tree was found in a garden on Sussex in the 1920s. Grafts were taken from this tree and it was later re-introduced to Japan. We have a number of trees dotted around the campus and they look superb!